Keeping Roma Students in High School

Christopher Schuetze:

Kosta Kuzmanovic's wish is to be a radiologist in Australia. But the path is lined with hurdles for the 17-year-old Roma student from this dusty East European city, which still bears scars from wartime bombings in 1999.

As a member of one of Europe's more disenfranchised minority groups, he may face financial, linguistic, bureaucratic and social barriers. If he does make it to an Australian university, it will be because of both his hard work and the Secondary Scholarship Program, run by the Roma Education Fund, a regional organization.

The program makes it possible for him to attend the Novi Sad Medical High School here, which offers counseling and financing for Roma students. "I have an opportunity, why wouldn't I use it?" he said.

The Serbian government does not track how many Roma youth are in school. But the R.E.F. estimates that only one in three Roma students in Serbia even attempts to enroll in high school.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 12, 2013 12:12 AM
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